If you have not been to Cambodia before, I would recommend not riding the elephants when you are there. They are severely mistreated, overworked, and abused and it is because of the support that the owners get from tourists that this treatment continues.

i've heard mixed reports on this, but shall check it out. where can i ride elephants then? Thailand? Vietnam? Is their an elephant school?

If you are really bent on an elephant ride - not the "touristy" kind...spare time for an adventure of a lifetime on an elephant through the pristine forests in Mondukiri!...Here elephants are still used as transport mode....so the question of, to quote amee "severely mistreated, overworked, and abused" (tourist elephants) does not arise!

You find your way to Phulung village where you can hire an elephant with the "elephant driver" for an experience of a lifetime through the Cambodia jungle...And you will have a wonderful story to tell your friends of the off the beaten track on an elephant!

this is the alternative since you will not be visiting Laos,the Land of a million elephants...you can have the same experience on an elephant in Sipien Valley near Champassak!

uhm im looking in my Cambodia map and cant find the place. Where is Mondukiri? Is this place in the North? anywhere near Angkor or Phnom Penh? oi vay, im gonna get so lost.

Hi pal!!!

Sorry...typo slip...should be mondulkiri......anyway it is bordered by Ratanakiri to the north, Vietnam to the east and southeast, Kratie to the southwest and west, and shares a very small border with Stung Treng to the north.the capital is Sen Monorom..If u are there, dont miss the Bou Sraa Waterfall....one of Cambodia's largest and most impressive falls.